Revit 2015 R2

Blog posts

Bio

For those who are unaware, in September 2014 Autodesk released an update to Revit which is only available only to Autodesk Maintenance and Desktop Subscription customers. Whilst not being 'mind blowing' they certainly enhance the Revit workflow for all disciplines.

My colleague Gareth Spencer has provided some tips and videos which mainly focus for the Structural disciplines.

However there are several other tweaks for other users such as the interoperability with IFC files.

You can now use existing geometry in a linked IFC model as references for dimensions, alignment, snapping, and hosting of some face-based families in the Revit model. When you link an IFC file, its elements are assigned to a default phase. But before using IFC Import, Link, or Export, go to Autodesk Exchange Apps for Autodesk Revit and download the latest edition of the IFC plug-in for Autodesk Revit to ensure best functionality. However at the time of writing It is worth noting even with the R2 update and the latest v4 IFC plug-in. The linked IFC file will still not be recognised as having valid room or area boundaries. This needs to be addressed for anyone working on Revit MEP and wishing to work more effectively with other project teams.

Other tweaks involve shaft openings, the base constraint value now defaults to the level of the current activated plan view. The instance properties have also been reordered to be consistent with families with similar parameters ie. Base Constraint, Base Offset, Top Constraint, Unconnected Height, and Top Offset.

Equally useful, we can now reveal constraints that have been applied to elements, if they have been hidden. To see all dimension constraints and alignment constraints in a view, use the Reveal Constraints mode, available on the View Control Bar. Very handy when joining a project or trying to reverse engineer a component!

Perspective views functionality have also been enhanced, certain modeling capabilities are now available in perspective views;

Including editing tools such as the Move, Align, Pin and Unpin functions.

You also have a 'Reset Target' tool. This function restores the position of the camera target to the center of the field of view. Again this is very handy if you need to set a Revit camera back to a default aspect. You can also toggle between the perspective and parallel representations of the 3D view.

Another improvement is a new Project Upgrade dialogue box, which gives a clearer indication of what version of Revit you are migrating from and to. Also with a clearer cancel function, should you not wish to upgrade the file.

Wall joins and editing, have also been improved as it is now possible to select multiple intersected wall joins with a single click, and choose to allow or disallow joins on all the selected walls with a single click. If you choose to allow joins, you can then specify a Display option (Clean Join, Don't Clean Join or Use View Setting).

Other improvements include when editing or creating families we have a 'Load into Project and close Family button' Very handy when trying to keep your virtual desktop tidy! Couple this with enhancements in how Revit displays objects in viewports makes our Revit experience even better than before.

Finally some landscaping tools in Revit!

The inclusion of Site Designer is a step in the right direction by being able to import LandXML files, from Civil 3D as a ‘toposurface’ and corridors as model lines, but more work needs to be done in making the commands more reliable and clearer to the less proficient user. Perhaps in the next release, further improvements will be forthcoming. Whilst I appreciate Revit is not designed to be a landscaping package, with all disciplines being expected to participate in a collaborative process, better data compatibility and coordination is a must. So come on Autodesk more effort is required! :)

After going through some options a successful import is reported....

All in all the R2 release has improved the overall user experience by dealing with some of user reported issues. However some outstanding issues do remain, like the ongoing saga of IFC compatibility and boundary detection. But I am sure in time these outstanding issues will be addressed, time will tell.